Frankie goes to Puppy School week 3

05/07/2017

Everybody arrived on time and keen to get in to class again. The twins Emma and Milly were on holiday this week so we just had four of us pups tonight which was quite nice but I did miss seeing the girls.

We started practising our positions again and this time instead of following a treat in Mum's hand I had to try and try and follow her hand and do the positions without the treat there. This is apparently called a hand signal. It was a bit tricky but I got the hang of it eventually and the good thing was we still got to have a little treat when we did it anyway! So I think I will keep doing my sit, down and stand for her, it seems to keep her happy.

Sometimes when I do my down I feel like I want to ping back up really quickly, we’re going to practise at home so I can get better at staying in my down position for a bit longer. Zoe said mum has to give me my treat while I’m still laying down and not when I jump back up, I can’t see the problem really but I’m sure the humans will all get the hang of it eventually. I like the hand signals because it’s easier for me to understand what mum is asking me to do. I know what ‘sit’ means now but sometimes I still get muddled with down and stand, and the hand signal helps me see what to do.

So the next thing we got to do was quite exciting, thank goodness because I needed to have a wiggle!

Zoe said we were going to practise our come when called. This time not from toys, but from playing with the other actual real life puppies. At last!! I had been looking forward to this bit, it’s just so much fun.

I got to play with Windsor who is a yellow Labrador. He is a bit bigger than me although I think I’m older than him. Windsor was a lot of fun to play with, he liked running around and was quite confident like me.

We got to have a sniff and a bit of a run together and then our mums had to call us away from the fun. Windsor was brilliant at this, he ran straight to his mum and she gave him a Natures Menu treat and then let him carry on running around with me. That was quite cool. When mum called me I was just so busy playing I kind of forgot to go and see what she wanted so mum came and showed me this piece of cheese. I was VERY interested in that so I followed her away from Windsor and had some very delicious cheddar! YUM!! The good thing was that I was still allowed to carry on running around with Windsor afterwards.

After a few practises we had to stop and let the other puppies have a go. The trouble is I was really excited and watching them having all the fun made me feel a bit frustrated. This makes me bark a bit and my French Bulldog bark sounds a little bit unusual, sometimes people laugh but I don’t mind.

Zoe and mum thought it would be good for me to pop out for a cool off and to go to the toilet while Woody and Bailey had a play. It was nice to go out on the grass for a bit but I think playing with them might have been more fun. Never mind, at least I had a go with Windsor.

After practising our positions, Anna showed the humans how to get us to settle on our beds.

We’ve been practising this a bit already so it wasn’t too hard for most of the puppies. We had to stay laying down on our beds and the humans gave us a treat every now and then and I even got to have a chew. I think I might have had ants in my pants tonight because I did not feel like laying on my bed at all!

It’s a good job mum is patient with me because she doesn’t mind when I can’t do things too well. It’s just really hard to lay still when you just want to get out and play with the other puppies. I think that’s why my teacher Zoe gave me a chew because when I had that I decided that maybe I would settle and have a nice chew on it for a while.

Next was handling and I am excellent at this now. I LOVE people and I LOVE people giving me attention and I am getting used to having my paws and ears felt.

This week our mums and dads took us to meet a new person in our class and they got to practise handling us like a vet would. I had a go with two new people and they loved me (of course) because I was really good and easy to handle. Mum is still my favourite human though and she got to stay with me while I was being handled.

Then it was time to practise walking nicely on a lead again. It’s so hard not to rush and pull, Zoe said maybe Sarah should go a bit quicker and she showed her some good tips. Apparently this isn’t my best trick yet because I get easily distracted by the other puppies, I don’t know about that but I hope we can practise lots at home and be really good at this next week so Zoe and Anna are pleased.

We also learned the ‘off’ word today. This means we have to take our noses away from a treat before we can have it. At first I think all the puppies thought NO WAY!! Because we really wanted those yummy treats in our humans hands. They just weren’t handing them over though so when we stopped licking and sniffing they gave them to us. Hmmm…….ok then, I can play that game! So basically, I sniff, mum says ‘off’, I stop sniffing and she says I can have it.

Well, it works for me, and Zoe says this will help me be polite and calm around food and learn self-control whatever that is! I’m working on it….!!!! Until next week, lots of love and licks Frankie xx